<p>Re post #191:
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<p>But the problem appears to be that the OP filled out the FAFSA wrong, claiming a college sibling who in fact was not enrolled in an eligible college, for FAFSA purposes (either out of wishful thinking or perhaps because he was unaware of the distinction). His FAFSA EFC probably is double what he thinks it is.</p>
<p>I was given a $28k package in total. My EFC is $0. So while I will still attend, I am still appealing. Basically if I didn’t have the year of DE credits, it would be $40k, and thus a deal breaker. Still, having to worry about $30k of debt when I’d like to be worrying about an engagement ring, a car payment, a down payment on a mortgage, and a kid(s), is a scary thought.</p>
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<p>Agreed, I think I posted somewhere on this thread that with income of $150K alone, the family contribution would be between $37-$49K per year…for the one kid.</p>
<p>xigbar, you are really breaking my heart. Seriously.</p>
<p>Do you have ANY other options, educationally speaking?</p>
<p>xigbar, you mentioned on another thread that you werent going to accept work study as you currently have a part time job that pays $10hr.
However, it is possible to find a work study job that pays $10hr & that money will not be added to EFC but considered part of financial aid when filing FAFSA next year.</p>
<p>I could enroll in a community college–but I don’t think that would be a good long term decision. Augsburg gave me less money, and St. Olaf denied me. So no, I don’t have any more options. All I can do is pray they re-evaluate and give me some more aid.</p>
<p>If I can find a work study that pays $10/hr great! But considering my current jobs has many perks that come with working for your best friend’s parents, I don’t think I would take it. Plus, I heard at a financial aid seminar that you don’t get penalized for anything under $5k–not sure if there’s any truth to this or not, but I don’t anticipating making much more than $5k.</p>
<p>It’s true, there’s a student income allowance of $5250 in the FAFSA formula. So any student income under that amount is not counted on for financial aid. If you save it all, it counts as savings for which there is no student allowance.</p>
<p>Yeah. I’ll plan on spending most of it on the <em>stuff</em> you need during college (soap, coffee during finals week etc) and maybe putting away $50 a month for a rainy day or something–to be spent before the FAFSA is filled out :D</p>
<p>Well, xigbar, I have to say that if you do choose this option, which it looks as if you are going to do, you ought to look into the ways you can work in public service to get forgiveness of your loans. Either way, I do feel as if you will be making an educated choice, which is all anyone can do.</p>
<p>Good luck to you. You seem like a great kid.</p>
<p>xigbar,</p>
<p>Do you have some small inheritance or something other than your job that might have affected your package?</p>
<p>Since his school is private, possibly they are using something besides FAFSA?</p>
<p>Sorry, but be glad at where you’re at. Because of sexual abuse from my father, my grades dropped, and my parents got a divorce. He took my college savings, and my mom is in tons of debt because she switched lawyers, not to mention our car is falling apart and we need another. Oh yeah, plus the countless evaluations from psychologists… I might have to go community college and transfer because I probably can’t afford anywhere that has my major. Not to mention my family situation is miserable (so living at home will probably hurt my GPA), and she makes 50k, with 3 kids, and my grandmother in expensive New England. Plus, I’m going into elementary teaching and illustration, so I’m not going to be making any money… Surely going to her second or 3rd choice is better than community college? </p>
<p>Besides, doing successfully in college is more important than going somewhere nice. I know someone that went to Yale, got a 3.5 GPA, and couldn’t get accepted into any of the many med programs she applied to. It’s awful, but you could be in a much worse situation.</p>
<p>Xigbar…</p>
<p>This job you have…isn’t it in your home town? If so, then how can you work it during the school year? If you can only work it on weekends when you come home, then also take the work-study job because those are usually only M-F daytime jobs. You don’t have to work ALL of the hours/money awarded. You could just work 5 W/S hours per week if you’re going to also be going home on weekends and working for this family’s company.</p>
<p>Re: Xigbar’s situation and others</p>
<p>The simple flat-out truth is that MOST places don’t meet full need for all students. So it doesn’t matter whether they use FAFSA, Profile, or a Ouija Board to determine a student’s aid package. Anything beyond the federally determined aid (Pell, Stafford, and where available Perkins or Work-Study) and state specific aid (Hope, Cal Grant, etc.) is entirely up to the institution itself.</p>
<p>Because of sexual abuse from my father, my grades dropped, and my parents got a divorce. He took my college savings,</p>
<p>This happened to the son of a friend of mine. They found an attorney to take the case on contingency and sued the dad civilly for the sexual abuse and got awarded over $300k. You may need to find a trial lawyer willing to take your case on contingency and sue your dad for the abuse…and therefore, in a roundabout way…get your money back.</p>
<p>My job will be roughly 15 minutes away from my school, and my friend who’s parents I work for will either be commuting to the school I’m going to, or a school with five minutes of it. So I’ll be able to keep decent hours.</p>
<p>And no–I don’t have an inheritance, and I didn’t fill out the PROFILE for Bethel either. I filled out a supplementary form, but it was nothing that would have drastically changed what I thought I should have received–just stuff like will I be filling out the FAFSA, how many credits do I anticipate taking and the like. </p>
<p><a href=“http://cas.bethel.edu/financial-aid/forms/bethel-aid-application-1112.pdf[/url]”>http://cas.bethel.edu/financial-aid/forms/bethel-aid-application-1112.pdf</a></p>
<p>just a thought for the OP - i understand your wanting to continue with your charitable giving. How about considering donating ‘time’ instead of money for several years. for ex - organizing a large fundraiser annually for a charity. it has the same effect, but frees up your $ for college.</p>
<p>The OP has left the building. But to hear him tell it, he’s already working 75 hours a week, so it doesn’t seem he has much in the way of time to donate.</p>
<p>Hey OP, update us on how that appeal went. We sent an appeal and got $0 from S’s number 1 Nat’l LAC. We are waiting for his #2 Nat’l U to respond but don’t expect much.</p>
<p>Our family is in a similar economic bracket and S’s merit awards at most of his preferred schools typically left us with a $35-$45K bill. He got a full ride at a decent OOS U (at the end of the Top 50 Publics), and after a scholarship our StateU cost would be only for room and board and personal expenses of about $16K. So we told him it would be crazy to give up $120K+ to go to his dream school but that he could pick either the OOS or our State U. He is looking pretty sad about it but he’ll get over it. IMO kids of this generation will definitely need to go to graduate school so if the household can’t or won’t pay the high $$ they are better off going to a StateU for undergrad and then focusing on those expensive highly ranked grad schools.
BTW for what it is worth, I think that the $ awarded this year are a bit lower than the past. We had S target some schools that give merit based on the experience of similarly situated former students at his rigorous HS. Some of them didn’t give him any $$ and others gave him less they had given another student who was almost identical 2 years ago.
Last, ignore the snarky responses. Sharks love a feeding frenzy :-)</p>
<p>Merit aid has changed over the last few years. D applied 3 years ago and rec’d a $15K a year merit award from Brandeis that they have discontinued. D rec’d $20K/ year from American–it was their next highest award called the Dean’s award. Now the Presidential is offering $20K when it used to be $28K. I think Deans’ is now down to $10K/year.</p>